Hospitality
by Doctor Wheel
Summary: (AU) Herman Grubber and Mikhail are newly appointed medical examiners for New York City after a massive crime spree that left humans and monsters dead. Little do these two foreign doctors know that they will be thrown in a sinister plot that threatens to tear apart the deteriorating relationship between humans and monsters forever.
1. Chapter 1: Doctors

**Year: 1968**

 **Location: New York City, New York**

"Ah Christ another one isn't it?" Major Tom Foolery said to a nearby policeman as he exited the squad car.

"You betcha sir," the policeman said. "Fifth one this week, and it's only Tuesday."

"Has the medical examiner come yet?"

"Not yet...wait a second. Here he comes now."

The major turned around and observed a large black van pull up behind the squad car. Out came a two men, one wore a brown apron over a white dress shirt with its sleeves rolled up, brown pants and shoes, and glasses. The other man was a hulking mountain of a man that dwarfed the other. He wore a brown shirt under a black vest and wore black pants and shoes. The man was bald compared to the other man who had black hair.

The shorter man said something to the taller man and continued to walk over to the major while the taller man walked to the back of the van.

"Guten Tag, gentlemen," he said in a heavy German accent. "Vhere is the deceased?"

"Down the alley sir." the policeman said.

"Zhank you," the man said with a nod before heading down to the crime scene by passing under the yellow police tape. The other man followed with a gurney and a bag.

"That doesn't seem like the usual guys," the major said.

"It's not, the morgue had been so busy, they needed more hands so the city hired more."

"I see, but who's the big guy?"

"He's supposed to be his assistant and bodyguard from what I've heard. He doesn't talk much."

The major nodded. "I'm going to see the crime scene."

"It's not pretty."

"I've seen worse." the major scoffed.

As the major ventured into the alley, signs of a fight, no, massacre started to show. Unreasonable amounts of blood coated the brick walls and were in small puddles on the ground, while pieces of flesh and clothing littered the ground.

The major shook his head at the carnage and continued on.

Lifeless bodies soon littered the alley, from what the major could see there had to be at least six or seven individuals who lost their lives. Various weapons were scattered on the ground, hinting they tried to fight back, but ultimately failed.

The forensics team was still taking pictures of the aftermath while the major spotted the medical examiner and his assistant crouching over a mutilated body. The man was looking over the body while the other man took notes. The man had bright red gloves on now.

"Late twenties to early thirties...death due to blood loss from multiple vounds. Zhe time of death: five hours ago."

The assistant noticed the major coming. "Doctor, policeman wants to see you."

"Ja?" the German stood up and nodded to the major. "Hello, I believe ve met before?"

"Yes, name's Tom."

"I am Doctor Herman Grubber, and zhis is mein assistant, Doctor Mikhail."

The taller man grunted.

"He doesn't talk a lot," Herman whispered to the major. "So vhat brings you here?"

"Well, I'm just wondering what happened here? Other than the obvious of course."

"Vell, from vhat I can tell from zhe bodies. Iz zhat most of zhe men perished from blood loss, as you can see. Majority of zheir vounds are from bites and claws. But I cannot tell yet vhat crytid might have made zhese marks until I get back to my office."

"Very well, carry on."

As the major left, Herman knelt back down and continued to examine the body. "You know Mikhail? I don't think zhat these men were the victims."

"Why is that doctor?" the Russian asked.

"Vell for starters, I doubt zhat someone normal would vear a ballistic vest." he said as he motioned to the deceased. The vest had a huge gash on front, but was mostly intact. "Secondly, I recognize some of zhese men as notorious anti-cryptid gang."

Mikhail nodded. "I see."

"My theory is zhat these men tried to do away with a cryptid but something happened, either zhat the cryptid went mad or it had backup."

"Stupid, stupid babies."

"Ja...eins, zwei, drei...ugh I don't zhink ve brought enough bodybags. Would you grab some more from the van, Mikhail?"

"Da."

Herman started to bag up the deceased, most people wouldn't have the stomach to do this, but for him it was a cakewalk. His father back in Germany was a coroner as well, and it seemed that Herman followed in his father's footsteps. In reality, Herman was particularly interested in the human body and especially the cryptid body, which he found interesting.

Cryptids are essentially, in layman terms, monsters. Centaurs, werewolves, vampires, mermaids...all fit into this category. They have been around as long as humans had, but as of lately, the relationship between them had been deteriorating. Humans didn't consider cryptids to be "safe" considering their advantages they have over humans. As a result, wars had broken out between the two species, the largest was the Civil War in America.

There has been some violence between the groups now and then since the Civil War, but with the recent attacks happening in the cities, it could possibly spiral the United States into yet another Civil War.

As Herman zipped up another body, he heard some commotion coming from behind him. He stood up and walked to the source, which was in front of the alley.

A crowd had gathered around the entrance to the alley, some cryptids and some human. Herman could tell that the crowd was not happy just by taking a look.

"Ach, was ist los?" he asked Mikhail, who was trying to help the police barricade the crime scene.

"Cryptids and humans trying to place blame on each other," he said. "Violence might break out."

"Zhen we must hurry. Bring the van into the alley so they don't see the bodies."

Mikhail nodded and headed for the van. Herman took another look and saw a riot police van pull up to the scene.

"Fess..."

With due haste, the two were able to bag the remaining bodies and load it into the van. That part was easy. Now came the hard part of getting out alive.

"This is a mess..." Tom said as he scratched his head. "I thought we kept this under wraps?!"

"We did sir," a policeman said. "But, word got out somehow."

"We need to get the doctors out of here, but how?"

"If I may propose a solution?" Herman said. "My solution: scare them off."

"With what?"

"This," he held up an iron suitcase that had multiple radiation symbols plastered on it.

"WOAH WHAT?!" the two jumped back. "Why do you have radiation materials with you?!"

Herman rolled his eyes. "It's not radioactive rods, dummkopfs. Zhis contains naturally radioactive rocks found in zhe wild. It contains about zhe same amount of radiation from what one vould receive if zhey stand in zhe sun all day."

"Your point?"

 **A few minutes later...**

With the help from the NYFD, the crowd dispersed once the word, radiation, got out. This allowed the doctors to go, but not before the fire department confiscated the radioactive rocks, mainly for the safety of the general public.

The two drove to the city's morgue and began to legally confirm the men were dead and how they died, as well as what may have killed him.

While in the process of determining the cause of death, Herman was called to the front. He told Mikhail to continue as he headed to the front.

"Vhat is it? It better be important," he said to the receptionist as he took off his gloves.

"Sorry doctor, but the city just assigned another medical examiner here," the receptionist said as she handed him the file. "She's in the lobby."

"Another medical examiner? Well, I don't mind zhe extra help," he opened the file and started looking it over. "Hm, interesting...well, she's in the lobby right?"

"Yes doctor."

"Very well." Herman tucked the file under is arm and headed for the lobby.

Once in the lobby, he found the new medical examiner waiting patiently with her back turned to him looking at a nearby potted plant, at least, he thought it was her. She wore a blue full-body suit that was extremely form fitting to her hourglass body. She also wore a black corset around his middle and black boots, which the suit was tucked into. She also wore large, black wielding gloves and wore a hazmat-light helmet, complete with respirator. She also had on a bright pink backpack.

"Uh, Miss Vryn?"

The person turned around and walked towards Herman.

"Uh, you're Miss Gwen Vryn right?" he asked.

The woman nodded. "That's me." she said, her voice slightly muffed by the respirator. "And I think you're wondering about my attire..."

"Yes...vhy are you like zhat?"

"...well, I'm a phoenix so..."

Herman raised an eyebrow before the realization kicked in. "Oh right! Fire users have to be in some kind of fire retardant suit so zhey don't catch anything on fire. Silly me. I should have read your file more in-depth." he said with a chuckle.

"You didn't read it?"

"No, well, yes sort of...I only got your file right now. I was in the middle of an autopsy vhen I got word of your file," he said. "My name's Herman, Doctor Herman Grubber. I'm zhe head medical examiner here."

"Hello doctor! I really hope we can work well together." she said with some enthusiasm. "Does anyone else work here?"

"Well, zhere is another examiner, but I don't really know him, but zhere is my assistant/partner Doctor Mikhail. He's currently working on the bodies."

He quickly looked at his watch. "I vould give you a tour, but I really need to get zhese bodies tagged and bagged. Do you mind putting the gloves on now?"

She giggled. "I got mine already!"

"Well zhen, shall ve get to vork?"

* * *

 **A/N: I really want to have some kind of TF2/monster story, so this is probably the closest I will get to it at this point.**

 **Till next time,**

 **-D.W**


	2. Chapter 2: No Rest

Mikhail looked up from his clipboard when he saw Herman walk into the room with an unknown female.

"Doctor, who is this?" he asked, adjusting his glasses.

"Mikhail, zhis is Doctor Gwen Vryn. Gwen zhis is Doctor Mikhail." Herman said.

Mikhail nodded and went back to work.

"He doesn't talk much," Herman commented. "Vhy don't you put your bag down somewhere and get started, we have lots of work to do."

The three eventually were able to determine the causes of death for the dead men and bag their bodies until they can be claimed by their next of kin and blah, blah, blah, legal stuff that is too technically challenging to be say and explain in well-depth.

"Phew! Is it usually this busy down here?" Gwen asked.

"I can't say, Frau Gwen. We just started working two weeks here."

"Really?"

"Ja, Mikhail and I vere just hired. My only guess is zhat the coroner that typically works here got overwhelmed by zhe amount of deceased, can't blame him though." the German said as he tossed his gloves in the trash. "Now let me turn zhese reports in so we can all go home, ja?"

Herman grabbed the lab reports and left, leaving Mikhail and Gwen alone in the autopsy room cleaning up

"Uh, so..Mikhail was it?" she asked as she wiped the examination tables.

"Da, but you can call me Misha as well," the Russian said as he put away the cleaned tools. "You are a phoenix?"

"Yes, I am."

He nodded. "In my home country, my family was enslaved and put in gulag, or work camp. One night, we revolted against evil men. As we escaped, guards cornered us and killed my father as he shielded us from the bullets. We only escaped death because a phoenix killed the guards, allowing us to escape. I do not know what happened to this phoenix, as he flew further into the gulag into battle."

"So where did little phoenix girl come from?" he asked.

Gwen rubbed the back of her neck. "North, but..."

"Iz ok, no need to tell Mikhail. Past is difficult for me to tell too," he interrupted.

The two cleaned in silence for a couple of minutes before Mikhail broke the silence. "Does doctor have place to stay?"

"Me? Well not really...prices for an apartment is way too high for me."

Mikhail stopped what he was doing and turned around. "Doctor has no home?"

"At the moment no...phoenixes don't really need houses anyways. We're birds too you know."

"NYET! This will not do! Doctor must have home!" he quickly finished cleaning and picked up up Gwen and threw her over her shoulder.

"Hey! Put me down!"

"Come! Little doctor friend can stay with us," the Russian boomed. "It is not right for doctor to stay in street!"

"Mishaaaaa, put me down!" she struggled from his grip, but miserably failed. "Can you pick my bag up at least...?"

 **Meanwhile...**

"And that's the last of it..." Herman said as he gave the receptionist the last of the paperwork.

"Thank you doctor. I'll have it delivered to the NYPD."

"Zhank you." Herman was about to leave when the doors to the morgue opened up.

"Atten HUT!"

In came two policemen, one was a tall and well-built with his eyes covered by his hat. The other was a similarly built African American that had an eye-patch over one of his eyes and was drinking something out of a brown bottle.

"Hello Fritz!" the former said to Herman. "Got those reports?"

"She has zhem, Jane," Herman said and pointed to the receptionist. "And vould you tone down a bit?"

"I'll go and retrieve them!"

"Gah..."

The other man lowered the bottle before burping. "Ayy, so these lads got fucked up, didn't they doc?" he asked.

"Ja, Tavish. Just zhe same as zhe others."

The two officers were Officer Jane Doe and Tavish Degroot respectively. The two were New York's best street cops, though their methods could be questionable at some times. The two quickly became the doctor's best friends since they were the ones that often came to the morgue to get autopsy reports.

"Dunno about you two, but things have gotten pretty bad out there," the Scotsman said. "Protests have broken out, people been fighting, and the chief himself told us that we cannot go on patrols alone just fer our own safety."

"That is bunch of bullcrap!" Jane shouted back. "I do not need girly-girl back up whatsoever."

"Yeah, yeah, soldier boy."

'Attention all available units. We have a code seventeen in progress. Any units respond.'

"We're on it, lad." Tavish said into his radio. "Well, doc. We gotta go."

"To duty!" Jane said as he ran out the doors.

Tavish sighed and followed his partner out the door.

"They're quite the two, aren't they?" the receptionist said.

"Ja, zhey make things interesting."

"DOCTOR!"

Herman turned and saw Mikhal run into the lobby with Gwen over his shoulder.

"Vhat is it, Mikhail? Something happened?"

"Little bird doctor has no home!"

"You don't have a place to stay Frau Gwen?"

"No...well technically yes. I can turn into a bird...I don't need a "house" like you two."

"Nonsense! Everyone should have a home or a place to stay. Even though you're, technically, an animal, I doubt you should stay outside." Herman said. "Our place should be large enough..."

"But I'm a girl..."

"What do you-oh! I see, don't worry about zhat. Mikhail and I respect zhe privacy of zhe opposite gender."

"Da, I have three sisters who can beat bad men if they are naughty."

Gwen wanted to refuse, but it didn't seem that the two doctors were willing to give up, so she gave in. "Fine."

* * *

The doctors' apartment was in a quiet part of the city near the edges of New York. The building was an aging, four story apartment. A couple of small businesses were on each side of the said apartment.

"Frau Gwen," Herman said. "Have you aquatinted yourself with zhe city yet?"

"No, not really."

The three were drove up to the apartment in the van (it was their personal work van) and parked in front of it.

"Vell, like how most racial groups put themselves in certain parts of the city, like Chinatown and the Queens, zhis is zhe part were most of zhe cryptids live. This is called Crypton. Most of the residences zhat live here are cryptids, few humans live here."

"Why are you guys here?"

"Mainly because zhe rent was cheap, but also because majority of zhe cryptid population comes to us for most medical needs."

"They do?"

"Ja, most of zhem are poor and cannot afford healthcare, which means zhey cannot go to doctors or hospitals, stuff like zhat."

Gwen looked around, Herman was right it being a mostly cryptid area. A few of said creatures were seen around, a couple of centaurs, some harpies, and so on.

Their apartment was on the second floor, room 204 to be exact. The apartment room looked better on the inside than the outside. About four rooms were present, two bedrooms, a bathroom, and a living room/kitchen area.

"You can have my room bird doctor," Mikhail said. "I can sleep on couch."

Gwen started to protest, but before she could start the Russian held up his hand. "You are guest, it is only fair you get bed."

"Uh, thanks?"

"No problem, bird doctor."

 **Later...**

"...and in local news there has been a spike in human murders occurring in the city, which is causing an uproar in the human population. Lyn Quinto with more info..."

"Gah, rubbish!" Herman said as he switched channels. "Can't the news talk about stuff less depressing?"

"Isn't that what news is for?" Mikhail asked.

It was late at night already, Gwen went to bed, leaving the two doctors alone in the living room watching the television.

"Right...how could I forget? Ugh zhis is just getting out of hand...vhat time is it?" he started to look at his watch when he heard a knock at the door. "Who may zhat be?"

He walked over to the front door and opened it. An old man with a wispy white beard, and wearing a blue bathrobe, black shorts and house slippers was standing in front of the door.

"Mr. Burner? Vhat are you doing here at this hour?" Mr. Burner was the apartment's landlord, and the two rarely saw the old man except when he collected rent. "I am sure we aren't behind on rent are we?"

"No, no, it's not that, but some happened here, we need you two."

"Vhy? What's going on?"

"Two cryptids just died in front of the apartment complex, I figured you two could check it out. I've called the police already."

"Vell, we have to let the police corner off the area first, but I guess we could check." Herman said as he adjusted his glasses. "Mikhail! Vould you quietly wake up Doctor Vryn, we have work to do."

* * *

 **A/N: Not very long, but it's something.**

 **Till next time,**

 **-D.W**


End file.
